CARAVAN CLUB NATIONAL AT BLENHEIM...

CARAVAN CLUB NATIONAL AT BLENHEIM – 25.5.07

We took our caravan to Blenheim Palace for the Caravan Club National Rally on Friday 25.5.07. We were booked in to the Tuesday, but had not booked the entertainment as we thought it was too expensive at £10 each per night, even though there were some good acts booked for this special 100 year weekend.

We found our pitch with the Midland Centre, and got set up and put the porch awning up. We decided to have a wander down to the main arena to book in and get our goody bag. We looked round the bars but NO REAL ALE…. We left the bar in disgust and went back to the caravan to drink some of the bottled beers we carry with us.

A lot of the weekend is geared around competitive sports, and at our age we are not into that any more. The teams were having early starts over Saturday morning, so after breakfast we had a wander down to see what was going on around the main arena. We wandered round the trade area, then after the opening ceremony watched the Spitfire give a superb display. We watched displays in the arena for a while. There was a Civil War Pageant and a motor bike stunt rider. The team that set up It’s a Knockout put on a brilliant show with about 5 groups going in for it. After a wander round the trade and a bite to eat we made our way back to the caravan to our own bottles of beer.

On Sunday we went out to Witney to look for pubs selling real ale. We called into the Angel where we had Brains SA Gold. Next we found a Good Beer Guide pub, the New Inn and had Exmoor Stag. There is a lovely fishpond outside by the toilets. We also found the House of Windsor where we had Hyde’s Golden Brown before driving up to the Windrush for a carvery. A bonus here was that they had real ale on, a lot of carvery establishments only serve creamflow. We had Vale Haddas Spring Gold and enjoyed both the meal and the beer.

Monday was wet – very wet. We did not stray from the caravan and watched cars struggling to leave the site as the ground was cutting up badly. We were pitched close to the roadway being used for the exit to the Red Gate, so were in a prime position to watch what was going on. 4 wheel drive cars were towing motorhomes, and also complete car and caravan units in an attempt to get them clear of the mud. Some car owners were idiots in the way they tackled the mud to get away and although we found it entertaining to watch, we knew we had to face it with our Skoda Estate on Tuesday.

We packed up on a dry Tuesday, although the porch was still soaking from the previous day’s rain. We were leaving around 10 as we were driving down to Brighton, and watched the routes being taken by the towing vehicles to get through the mud. As spaces were clearing, we found the easiest way was through the caravan lines, and we were lucky enough to get off site without being towed ourselves.

It had been a good weekend, and the next years National had been announced as at Houghton Hall in Norfolk.